March 23 – May 4, 2024

Maru Aponte
Salt Stains

mira y no les descuides.
las islas son mundos aparentes.                                 
cortadas en el mar
transcurren en su soledad de teirras sin raiz.
en el silencio del agua una mancha

look and don’t neglect them.
the islands are apparent worlds.
cut off in the sea
moving past in the solitude of rootless lands.
above the water’s silence, a stain

—Reina María Rodríguez, “las islas / the islands”

Mona Island, in the Puerto Rican archipelago, has two hundred caves, many of which permeate its coastline and are visible from the sea. These caverns are caesuras in the island’s chromatic landscape. The wind shakes the palms, sand and surf, making sunlight and shadow dance around the still, dark recesses. From a boat, Maru Aponte transcribes the movement and luminosity around her with watercolours on small pieces of paper. She works with the medium because it responds to wind, light and heat, much like the ocean. The plein-air sketches that inform the paintings in Salt Stains express the elements and forces that shape the islands in the archipelago.

In her poem “las islas / the islands,” Cuban poet Reina Maria Rodriguez observes that the physical and psychic landscapes of islands and their residents are entwined. An island’s topography is akin to a floating body, and both bear the stains of atmospheric and social weather. Rodriguez explores how an island’s isolation creates a unique spatial and temporal experience for those who inhabit it, that is distinct from places and people that are from away.

At a distance, the caves on Mona Island resemble portals. Up close, they are places of contact, evidenced by the presence of cross-cultural art and tools dating back millennia, and epochs of plant and mineral life. The form and concept of a portal as a threshold of encounter resonates with Aponte. She has split her time between Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and Vancouver, Canada, since 2021, and her new work is informed by her passage between the two places. Her time spent in the Pacific Northwest’s temperate climate resonates in the paintings’ grey-toned ground, which subdues the vivid palette conjured by the Caribbean tropics.

Maru Aponte’s artistic journey unfolds through the dynamic exploration of watercolour as a contemporary medium, challenging its historical associations with leisurely pursuits. Aponte is a Puerto Rican artist working in Vancouver, Canada, where she bridges diverse landscapes to evoke a profound sense of place. Intense colour emerges as a pivotal element in her work. This saturation reflects the intrinsic qualities of the medium as well as the vibrant palette of Puerto Rico. Her paintings resonate as a visceral representation of the Caribbean experience—beautiful, cacophonous and authentic. Aponte recently graduated with an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver. In 2023, she had a solo exhibition at Souvenir 154 in San Juan and was granted the Griffin x ECU Fellowship Studio Award at Griffin Arts Projects in North Vancouver. In the summer of 2024, Aponte will present a solo exhibition at Galería Agustina Ferreyra in Mexico City.

Image Credit: Maru Aponte, Pink Tides, 2023. Watercolour on paper.